The present invention relates to drawer slides and more particularly to drawer slides permitting the drawer to be removed from the cabinet opening.
A wide variety of drawer slides has been developed for slidably supporting a drawer within a cabinet. A pair of such slides are used on opposite sides of the drawer. Each slide includes a drawer rail secured to the drawer, a cabinet rail secured to the cabinet, and roller means for slidably interfitting the rails. Often, intermediate rails are provided between the drawer and cabinet rails, permitting the drawer to be fully extended from the cabinet opening. Stop mechanisms are provided on the drawer slides to limit the movement of the drawers between fully closed and fully open positions.
Often, the slides include a release mechanism for overcoming or bypassing the stop mechanism and thereby permitting the drawer to be removed from the cabinet to service the cabinet, drawer, and/or slide or to retrieve articles which have fallen out of the drawer into the cabinet. One particularly successful such slide is that sold by Knape & Vogt Manufacturing Company (the assignee of the present application) of Grand Rapids, Michigan as its Model No. 1428 three-part slide. This slide is a "lift-out" slide wherein the stop mechanism includes a tab which depends downwardly from the drawer rail to engage a tab on the intermediate rail to prohibit movement past "full extension". A clearance is provided between the two rails permitting the drawer rail to be vertically cocked or canted with respect to the intermediate rail. Upon cocking, the drawer rail tab is lifted above the intermediate rail tab; and the drawer rail and drawer can be removed. Although constituting a significant advance, this slide suffers cne drawback. Specifically, the drawer can be inadvertently removed from the drawer cabinet if the drawer is accidentally lifted at its full extension from the cabinet. Fortunately, this usually occurs only when the drawer is lightly loaded. This of course can be extremely inconvenient, awkward, and even disruptive since the user is typically not prepared to handle the drawer upon its inadvertent removal from the cabinet.
Attempts to add positive locks to lift-out slides have not been particularly successful. These locks have proven difficult to operate and/or extend beyond the lateral confines of the slide, interfering with the operation of the drawer.